This week we uncover the first group of Devils on our Top 25 list, which includes a few new players in our pool.
Yesterday, John Fischer revealed the Outsiders on our Top 25 under 25 rankings for 2024. Today, we look at the first five who made it into the rankings. Unsurprisingly with so much turnover in this year’s pool, we have some new faces and a promotion into the Top 25, but there are also two fallers from last summer amongst the first five revealed. Let’s take a look.
#25 – Samu Salminen – C/W – Age: 21 – 2023-24 Team: University of Connecticut (NCAA) – 2023 Rank: 18 Elite Prospects Profile
Falling back down to his familiar #25 spot after a brief rise into the Top 20 last year is Samu Salminen. Despite all the exits in the prospect pool, Salminen’s slight fall was justified as the forward put up only 17 points in 35 games last season for the goal-starved Huskies. All in all it was a disappointing, but not fatal season for the power forward’s development.
Everything is not all gloom though. Salminen is set to join the University of Denver next season. The hefty winger has a lot of the tools to be an effective player. Hopefully, transferring to a more offensive team will help Salminen find the scoring sheet more often as it did for another former Husky and recent Devils prospect, Artem Shlaine.
Salminen has traveled an odd road since he was drafted by the Devils in the 3rd round (68th overall) in the 2021 NHL entry draft. As a player with NCAA ambitions, the Finnish forward had to stay in the lower U20 Jokerit team to maintain eligibility. Then, Salminen’s first NCAA season was delayed by visa issues, so it was easy to dismiss his seventeen points in twenty-seven freshman games as an adjustment year after a late start. Last season dispelled that analysis. However, Salminen should not be written off as a prospect just yet.
The Huskies lack of team scoring cannot be overstated. Last season, the University of Denver scored 202 goals compared to UCONN’s 90. Salminen factored in roughly 19% of all of the Huskies goals last season, a percentage which would have put him fifth on the Pioneers and, given that Denver’s second highest scorer was defensive phenom Zeev Buium, squarely in the top two lines. Another way of putting it, if Salminen figured in the same percentage of his new team’s goals as he did on the Huskies, his totals would be over a point per game on his new team. We look forward to see what Salminen does with his new team this upcoming season.
#24 – Kasper Pikkarainen – W – Age: 18 – 2023-24 Team: TPS (Liiga) – 2023 Rank: N/A Elite Prospects Profile
A very strong debut for the feisty winger selected by the Devils in the third round (85th overall) in this year’s NHL entry draft, Pikkarainen benefits from being a fresh face in a diminished pool. As not much has changed in Pikkarainen’s career since the draft, one should read John’s excellent pre-draft write-up on the winger here. For those who do not want to click on the link, a brief summary of Pikkarainen’s pathway towards a NHL future is as follows.
Pikkarainen grew up in the TPS system in Finland, really hitting his stride last season after a monster 56 points in 38 games U16 campaign in 2021-22 and a bit of a fallback D-1 transition to the U18 the following year, where Pikkarainen put up 24 points in 39 contests. Last season, Pikkarainen played mostly in the U20, tallying a respectable 28 points in 34 games and getting a taste of the pros with a five game call-up to the TPS Liiga club.
For next season, Pikkarainen signed with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL. Playing in North America should help the winger adjust his game and work towards earning his ELC, which could happen as soon as next summer. Next season will certainly be a big year for the big winger’s development. We wish him luck.
#23 – Daniil Orlov – D – Age: 20 – 2023-24 Team: Spartak Moskva (KHL) – 2023 Rank: 29 Elite Prospects Profile
After slowly climbing up the rankings the past few years, Russian defender Daniil Orlov makes his Top 25 debut in the #23 spot here. The promotion was well-earned as Orlov graduated to a full-time KHLer on the Spartak blueline this past season, playing in 60 games and amassing 7 points. While the point totals are not earth-shattering, they rarely are for young Russian defenders, and Orlov, while having a strong transition game, has always been more of a defensive-minded defender.
The knock on Orlov when he was drafted was his puck handling skills. According to Austin Kelly in an update for Dobber Prospects, Orlov has been “more confident with the puck this season, which is a big plus for his development. This is likely the reason why the young defender has transitioned so smoothly into the KHL.
Orlov is an interesting case as the steady blueliner tends to get looked over in the Devils system in lieu of more well-known and higher drafted prospects, so it is nice to see him get some recognition this year. Orlov is contracted to Spartak for two more seasons. After which, the sturdy defender would be free to sign with the Devils. Should Orlov’s trajectory continue on its current path, one would think the Devils would want to sign the young defender around that time, assuming he is not used as a trade chip due to the Devils already-crowded young blue line. Time will tell. For now, we wish Orlov the best in Spartak.
#22 – Mikhail Yegorov – G – Age: 18 – 2023-24 Team: Omaha Lancers (USHL) – 2023 Rank: N/A Elite Prospects Profile
The first goalie to make the Top 25 on this year’s list, Yegorov makes the cut mostly on recent draft pedigree. Drafted in the 2nd round (49th overall) in a pick that was acquired in the John Marino trade in this past year’s NHL entry draft, Yegorov was also ranked the top North American goaltender by Central Scouting.
After a successful U17 campaign for CSKA Moskva in 2022-23, in which Yegorov 2.26 GAA in 21 games, the Russian goaltender, the toolsy Russian netminder made the jump to North America to play for a very bad Omaha Lancers team. Yegorov got shelled in the USHL as the Lancers porous defense left him out to dry and finished with a 8-25-3 record, 3.87 GAA and .892 SV%. Still, the raw talent is there, as evident by Yegorov’s rankings and the fact that Boston University recruited the Russian netminder. Hopefully, Yegorov will find a grove for the Terriers when he arrives.
#21 – Ethan Edwards – D – Age: 22 – 2023-24 Team: University of Michigan (NCAA) – 2023 Rank: 20 Elite Prospects Profile
Falling one spot from last year’s list after an injury-riddled campaign is left-handed defenseman, Ethan Edwards. who missed the first-half of last season recovering from shoulder surgery. Edwards played well in the games in which he saw action, totaling 10 points in 21 contests, respectable for a defender known more for his transition and defensive end skills.
It should be noted that while Edwards technically fell one spot in this year’s rankings, the defender actually tied with the player ranked #20 in this year’s list. As always, the Community broke the tie and Edwards ended up in the bottom five of the Top 25. Next week we will reveal who beat Edwards out in the tie-breaker for #20.
As an undersized defensive-defenseman, Edwards has a difficult, but not impossible, path to the NHL, even with his high skill level. As Edwards will be entering his senior year with the University of Michigan this season and there has been no word of Edwards signing his ELC to date, that pathway may end up being explored with another organization. The Devils logjam of defensive prospects is well-known and Edwards may very well seek a better opportunity elsewhere. Whatever happens, Edwards enters this year healthy and ready to earn an ELC somewhere. We wish him luck.
THE RANKINGS
How everyone ranked these players:
AATJ Writers and Community
One thing that pops out from the data is that nobody ranked all five of these players in their personal Top 25. As to the rankings themselves, Kaspar Pikkarainen and Samu Salminen were the closest together on this list with only .14 points of separation. Salminen beat out defensive-prospect Daniil Karpovich by about .7 points to nab the final spot in the Top 25. As stated before, a community tiebreaker put Edwards in the 21st spot. Next week we shall reveal what player the community chose to be #20. Lastly, the biggest gap between these five was between Mikhail Yegurov and his countryman Daniil Orlov with a little over 2.5 points of separation.
YOUR TAKE
Now it is time to tell us what you think. Where did you rank these players? How does your list compare to the tallies? Post your meaningful comments below.